We look at the daily analytical report from Google for our site www.diyornot.com to know what topics our readers are interested in. Google Analytics is a free service that generates detailed statistics about a website’s traffic and traffic sources which tells us the words our readers search on for cost information about improvements they want to make to their homes. It’s a useful tool that tells us the most popular job costs so we can fine tune how we program the content and job costs on the site.

A recent report shows an even split between interior and exterior jobs. The inside projects didn’t surprise us because they included five of the overall most popular jobs – installing a suspended or drop ceiling, replacing a bathtub with a shower, painting a room and refinishing hardwood floors. At this time of year when warm weather turns to cold in many parts of the country we see traffic to our job cost on an energy upgrade like installing cellulose insulation in an attic.

The most popular exterior upgrade costs are for replacing a patio sliding door followed by repairing a broken window pane. And who knew chimney work was on everyone’s radar screen? The cost of cleaning a chimney and installing a chimney cap were most viewed and installing an invisible dog fence rounded out the list.

We find it fascinating to have such a close look at what job costs and projects interest our readers and Google Analytics helps us program our content accordingly.